We visited a Nail Salon.

Duncombe and Lambert were reluctant to do this.

Linda & Pat at the salon

Duncombe goes for black

Nail colors

Steve Duncombe = black

Pat Jerido = silver

Steve Lambert = clear

Linda Sarsour = pale pink

Nail Salons are popular – according to Nails Magazine people paid nearly 7.5 billion dollars in nail services in 2013 and the industry is growing. Just look around your area, there will be a nail salon somewhere! What makes these spaces work, and how can we use it?

]]>0Steve Lamberthttp://artisticactivism.org/?p=57342015-06-09T06:38:16Z2015-06-08T17:23:20ZFor our latest expedition we went out for a night of live stand up comedy. Combining local clubs, touring acts, cable networks, netflix, and the White House correspondents dinner, the American art form of stand up is far reaching and growing.

Show notes

Leonidas Martin As an artist, professor, activist and “expert joke teller,” Leonidas Martin has invigorated the wave of Spanish protests beginning in 2011 known as M15. When not teaching new media and political art at the University of Barcelona, writing about art and cultural politics for online and print media or directing and producing documentaries, Martin organizes social actions with the Barcelona-based artist collective “Enmedio” (which translates to “among” in English). One such action, which showcases the group’s trademark combination of interventionist tactics and politically engaged artistic practice, is Evictions Are Not Numbers, They Are Faces and Eyes (2012). For this action, which took place on the one-year anniversary of the first M15 protests, members of Enmedio pasted portraits of evicted Spaniards onto the storefront windows of banks around the country. The large photographs put faces to the names of those that the banks would not or could not support, frankly embodying the consequences of the financial crisis.

W. Kamau Bell – Walter Kamau Bell (better known as W. Kamau Bell) is an American stand-up comic. Prominent within the San Francisco stand-up comedy scene, he is best known as the former host of the FXX television series Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell.

Comedy is Truth and Pain

Aziz Ansari is an American actor and comedian. He starred as Tom Haverford on the NBC show Parks and Recreation.

Aziz Ansari Is a Feminist – David Letterman

What is our Two Drink Minimum that “helps ease people into the issues or discussions we want them to have”? What is our 3 drink maximum? What is the freedom and the boundaries we give our audiences.

Anthony Jeselnik is an American comedian, television host, writer, producer, and actor. Jeselnik is known for his dark comedy style, which emphasizes misdirection, non-sequiturs, biting insults, an arrogant bearing, and a stage persona that frequently takes amoral stances.

Louis C.K. is an American comedian, actor, writer, producer, director and editor. He is the creator, star, writer, director, executive producer and primary editor of the acclaimed FX comedy series Louie. C.K. has won a 2012 Peabody Award and five Emmy awards, as well as numerous awards for The Chris Rock Show and Louie, as well as his stand-up specials Live at the Beacon Theater (2011) and Oh My God (2013).

Amy Schumer is an American stand-up comedian, writer and actress. She placed fourth on the fifth season of NBC’s Last Comic Standing and placed second on Comedy Central’s Reality Bites Back. In 2012, she held a recurring role on the Adult Swim series Delocated. She is the star of the sketch comedy series Inside Amy Schumer, which has been airing on Comedy Central since 2013.

SYMPOSIUM ON ART & SOCIAL INNOVATION

TORONTO, JUNE 11-12, 2015

Creative Catalyst brings together Canadian artists, designers, researchers, industry, and community members in discussion on how arts and culture catalyzes social innovation.

In the face of “wicked” social problems, radical innovation is required to change perspective and shift culture. Artists and creatives are at the forefront of communicating social change, using artistic expression and creative practice to open up a space for critical reflection, dialogue, and idea generation.

Creative Catalyst features an opening night reception on June 11, keynotes by Edward Burtynsky with Judith Marcuse, Stephen Duncombe and Steve Lambert from the Center for Artistic Activism, an interactive art installation by Madeleine Co. & The Bodhi Collective, and catered meals.

“People in the art world, in general, are afraid of popular… it’s the fear that if you like what everyone else likes, then you’re no different than them, you might just be like them. And people are quite frightened of that.” – Brian Eno

This episode we had author, philosopher, and punk rock drummer Max Trembley tour us through hit songs on the Billboard Hot 100.

How the Hot 100 works “This week’s most popular songs across all genres, ranked by radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Nielsen Music, sales data as compiled by Nielsen Music and streaming activity data provided by online music sources.””

Song 3 – Ed Sheeran – Thinking Out Loud

Song 4 – Hozier – Take Me to Church

“The video… follows two men in a same-sex relationship and the violently homophobic backlash that ensues when the community learns of one of the men’s sexuality. Hozier himself does not appear in the video. The song went viral following its release.” – wikipedia

Song 5 – Maroon 5 – Sugar

Adam Levine – “Since 2011, Levine has served as a coach on NBC’s reality talent show The Voice… As an entrepreneur, Levine launched his own eponymous fragrance line in 2013. The same year, he collaborated with Kmart and ShopYourWay.com to develop his menswear collection. He also owns a record label, 222 Records. In 2013, The Hollywood Reporter reported that “sources familiar with his many business dealings” estimated Levine would earn more than $35 million that year.”

Video Staging Accusations “Several online magazines including Life & Style, Rolling Stone and Cosmopolitan reported that the video was allegedly staged and filmed over a course of three days on the same location. “

Brian Eno Lecture on Pop Music (skip to about 37:15) “Gloss. Sheen. Finish… a lot of attention to a particular kind of sonic production. You know, the really perfect sounds on certain instruments… That’s one side.” He then goes on to compare the Velvet Underground with Abba.

Gran Fury

Gran Fury was the graphics wing of ACTUP and used advertising’s tropes and polish to communicate about the AIDS crisis.

James Brown – Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud

James Brown I’m Black and I’m Proud on Wikipedia – “In the song, Brown addresses the prejudice towards blacks in America, and the need for black empowerment. He proclaims that “we demands a chance to do things for ourself/we’re tired of beating our head against the wall/and workin’ for someone else”. The song’s call-and-response chorus is performed by a group of young children, who respond to Brown’s command of “Say it loud” with “I’m black and I’m proud!” The song was recorded in a Los Angeles area suburb with about 30 young people from the Watts and Compton areas.”

Maxwell Tremblay

Max Tremblay

Max is a doctoral student in Philosophy at the New School for Social Research. He is the co-editor of White Riot: Punk Rock and the Politics of Race and plays drums in the band Sleepies.

The ultimate collection on punk and race, from the Clash to Los Crudos.

From the Clash to Los Crudos, skinheads to afro-punks, the punk rock movement has been obsessed by race. And yet the connections have never been traced in a comprehensive way. White Riot is the definitive study of the subject, collecting first-person writing, lyrics, letters to zines, and analyses of punk history from across the globe.

50 Shades of Grey, a series of books and a movie dealing with “deviant” or non-normative sex. And yet, also an internationally top selling book and motion picture box office sensation! We took a group of 23 sex work activists to see 50 Shades of Grey in Cape Town, South Africa. Steve and Steve give a quick rundown on some key lessons learned.

Note: this episode was recorded while Steve and Steve were still in South Africa. Pat will be back next time!

Two Quick Favors:

Tell a friend about the show, rate/review it on iTunes or wherever you get podcasts.

]]>0Steve Lamberthttp://artisticactivism.org/?p=56592015-04-19T14:27:23Z2015-04-19T18:02:18ZWorking with several advocates for the decriminalization of sex work, we took over the controversial sculpture “Perceiving Freedom” in Cape Town. The action was the culmination of our School for Creative Activism workshop in Cape Town.

Images

SELFIES TO PARLIAMENT: SEX AT THE SPECS

The “Perceiving Freedom” glasses sculpture on Cape Town’s Sea Point promenade looking towards Robben Island, commemorates late President Nelson Mandela and the values of freedom and equality. Human rights activists, including from Sonke Gender Justice, Sisonke Sex Workers Movement and SWEAT, will be honouring the lives lost in the “Sizzlers massacre”1 that took place in 2003 when nine men—seven sex workers—were murdered in Sea Point. The activists will erect a three meter mirror in front of the spectacles, symbolically directing the spectator’s gaze westwards towards where the Sizzlers gay massage parlour used to operate from.

The demonstration will raise awareness about the harmful laws used against sex workers in South Africa and the rest of the continent. Twelve years since the Sizzler massacre—and more than 20 years into democracy—South Africa still criminalises sex work and by doing so increases violence, discrimination, and intolerance against sex workers. Furthermore, the criminalisation impedes national responses to HIV. UNAIDS reports that female sex workers are 13.5 times more likely to be living with HIV than other women.

The criminalisation of sex work drives sex workers underground and increases stigma, which creates obstacles for sex workers to access vital health, legal, and social services. Considered criminals, sex workers are vulnerable to human rights violations and even violent death. Just two weeks ago, a sex worker was brutally murdered in Woodstock, Cape Town.

Activists will create a “spectacle at the spectacles”, encouraging passers-by to interact with sex workers and ask them questions. They will be invited to take selfies to tweet government officials demanding the decriminalisation of sex work. Pictures from the day will be available at the hashtags ‪#‎spexxx‬ and ‪#‎decrimsexwork‬.

]]>0Steve Lamberthttp://artisticactivism.org/?p=56452015-05-09T12:44:26Z2015-04-09T12:10:17ZThis month we get a meal at the TGI Friday’s in New York’s Union Square. Started as a single restaurant near the Queensboro Bridge in Manhattan, TGI Friday’s now has over 900 restaurants in 61 countries. Known for kitchy decor, potato skins, and alchohol – but what makes this restaurant so popular? And what can we learn from it to make better art and activism?

Shake Shack – Wikipedia “is a fast casual restaurant chain based in New York City. It started out as a food cart inside Madison Square Park in 2000, and its popularity steadily grew. It eventually moved to a stand within the park, expanding its menu from New York-style hamburgers to one with hamburgers, hotdogs, fries and its namesake milkshakes.”

Free Jazz – Wikipedia “Though the music of free jazz composers varied widely, a common feature was dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz that had developed in the 1940s and 1950s. Free jazz musicians attempted to alter, extend, or break down jazz convention, often by discarding fixed chord changes or tempos. While usually considered avant-garde, free jazz has also been described as an attempt to return jazz to its primitive, often religious, roots and emphasis on collective improvisation.”

]]>0Steve Lamberthttp://artisticactivism.org/?p=56442015-04-07T12:14:51Z2015-04-07T12:13:29ZThere’s a Massive, Illicit Bust of Edward Snowden Stuck to a War Monument in Brooklyn

While most people slept, a trio of artists and some helpers installed a bust of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in Brooklyn on Monday morning. The group, which allowed ANIMAL to exclusively document the installation on the condition that we hide their identities, hauled the 100-pound sculpture into Fort Greene Park and up its hilly terrain just before dawn. They fused it to part of the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument, a memorial to Revolutionary War soldiers. As of press time, the sculpture was still there. UPDATE: Parks Department put a tarp over the bust and removed it this afternoon.

]]>0Adam Scarboroughhttp://artisticactivism.org/?p=56142015-04-19T01:08:48Z2015-03-29T19:36:57ZWe’re delighted to introduce the participants for our workshop on Campaigns to Support Sex Work Activism, funded by Open Society Foundation and taking place in Cape Town, South Africa THIS VERY WEEK!

Say hello to…

Dimitri DelibasOSF South AfricaProgramme Officer

A recent addition to the Open Society Foundation team, Dimitri is the Programme Officer for the portfolio of Advancing Civil Society and Promoting Socio-economic rights. This has a large focus on public health and education.

Voyokazi GonyelaTreatment Action CampaignProvincial Officer

Voyokazi is a young human rights female activist who lives in the eastern cape province. She started volunteering for TAC in 2003 with the aim of educating and advocating for therecognition and protection of human rights particularly people living with HIV. Her activism grew as she was exposed to a lot of challenges and later formed partnership with SWEAT based in the EC office as she identified a need for TAC as an organized group to offer support and add voice to address challenges experienced by key populations including Sex workers and LGBTI’s.

Wayne HelfrichWRHIProject Manager

Wayne has been functioning as Project Manager on the Sex Worker’s Project since October 2014; prior to that he has been involved in projects related to; adolescent HIV, People who inject with drugs, the homeless, gender based violence survivors, transgendered people and LGBTI community at length. He has a life-time of experience as an activist for the LGBTI community and for the last five years tried to be the voice of those who are denied one.

Growing up with activist parents involved in the visual and performance arts, Ishtar always had an interest in using creative methods to further our call for social justice and rights for sex workers. Currently working at Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce. The formal role at SWEAT is coordinating SWEAT’s parliamentary lobbying and responses to the human rights violations of sex workers. Part of that work also consists of organising strategic direct action and assisting in coordination of the decriminalisation of sex work coalition with an end goal of achieving legal reform.

Munyaradzi David MasungaSisonkeProvincial Coordinator

Munyaradzi is 26, and born in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1988. Munya grew up and studied there, but fled homophobia from motherland and found a second home in South Africa in the year 2010. Munya has a passion for defending human rights, especially where women and the LGBTI rights are concerned. Munya is also a music lover and a singer.

Tshepo Edwin ModisaneWRHICommunity Health Worker

Edwin is a Community Health Care worker with vast amount of experiences working with key populations. He currently works with Wits RHI providing direct support to the nurses, conducting pre and post counsilling, pricking, adherence counseling, follow up of defaulters and taking down sex workers’ demographics. He has also worked for ANOVA Health Institute where he had to identify and establish working relationships with stakeholders in the community. He also organized MSM activities and dialogues and is currently studying project management at diploma level and has done GCP (Good Clinical Practice)

Kgaugelo MokgwatsanaPerinatal HIV Research Unit Co-ordinator

Kgaugelo is the coordinator for the Soweto Sex Worker Project, working in conjunction with Sisonke and the Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT). As a sex worker herself and having been recently nominated to sit on the Gauteng Provincial AIDS Council, she is a dedicated activist and programmer implementer.

Elsa OlivieraAfrican Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS)PhD Student

Elsa is a researcher/activist who has worked closely with Sisonke since 2010 in an array of arts-based research projects (visual and narrative) where the centrl aim of the work has been to conduct robust research that can reach a wide range of audiences, specifically the general public, policy makers and key stakeholders. In 2010, she led the ‘Working the City’ participatory photo project with migrant sex workers in inner-city Johannesburg (http://www.migration.org.za/page/about-wtc/move). In 2013, ACMS was awarded a grant from OSF/OSISA to conduct another two participatory photo projects with sex workers in South Africa. This project culminated in an exhibition entitled ‘Volume 44’ (http://www.migration.org.za/page/about-vol44/move).

Siyabonga RadebeWRHITeam Leader

Siyabonga is currently employed by WRHI as A Team Leader for MSM (men who have sex with other men) & transgender Sex Work Project, where he started as a Peer Educator and was recently promoted as a Team Leader. He has previously been employed by Bassline Music Venue as a Bartending Manager and also did work for Platinum Group as a Store Machandiser and Stylist. He is an active MSM sex worker working in Sandton and Johannesburg.

Nivesh RawatlalMidrand Graduate InstituteLecturer/Graphic Artist

As a practicing Graphic artist and lecturer Nivesh aims to use his work as a tool for activism through the development of imagery utilized for creating awareness. He has in the past developed bodies of work concerning varied issues faced by Southern African society, such as class division, crime, poverty and so forth. In addition to this practice he has worked extensively with Arts for Humanity, an NGO concerned with creating global networks through art in order to educate youth by visual methods. He is also currently developing his masters study at the Durban University of technology surrounding my practice. His portfolio can be viewed at www.behance.net/NiveshR

Marlise Richter is a senior member of Sonke’s Policy, Development and Advocacy Unit where she manages Sonke’s prison reform advocacy, serves as coordinator of Sonke’s partnership with Sweat aimed at the full decriminalisation of sex work, and also manages the Sonke-UCLA Health and Human Rights LLM fellowship programme. Marlise has worked in health and human rights focused organisations for many years and in a number of different key national NGOs. She worked as a researcher at Project Literacy, the AIDS Law Project, the Treatment Action Campaign and the Reproductive Health and HIV Research Unit. She is currently a visiting researcher at the School of Public Health & Family Medicine, University of Cape Town and at the African Centre for Migration & Society, Wits University, where she pursues her research and advocacy interests in feminism, human rights and HIV/AIDS, with a particular focus on sex work and gender based violence. She is also involved in campaigns on animal rights, urban greening (particularly Guerilla Gardening) and ethical food-production.

Greta SchulerUniversity of the WitwatersrandPhD Candidate

Greta Schuler is pursuing her PhD in Creative Writing at the University of the Witwatersrand. Her dissertation focuses on the lives of migrant sex workers in Johannesburg. She is conducting research with the African Centre for Migration and Society as a Doctoral Fellow, working on the MoVE Project, funded by the Open Society Foundation. For the project, Greta is facilitating creative writing workshops with sex workers. Greta’s short stories and essays have appeared in various literary journals. She holds an MA in Forced Migration from the University of the Witwatersrand and an MFA in Creative Writing from American University, Washington, DC.

Ruvimbo TengaSisonkeWestern Cape Sisonke Media Liaison

Ruvimbo Tenga is a migrant sex worker human rights activist from Zimbabwe. She works at Sisonke Sex worker Movement in South Africa as the Western Cape Media Liaison which advocates for the decriminalization of sex work. She is in the Advocacy Unit and manages the social media for Sisonke, like facebook. She is also involved in direct action planning and mobilisations of sex work to fight their constitutional rights.

Lesego TlwhaleSWEATMedia Advocacy Officer

Lesego Tlhwale is a communication personnel currently working as a media advocacy officer for Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) within the advocacy unit. In this position Lesego is responsible for all media interaction with SWEAT and Sisonke as well as branding, communication and social media for the organisation. Furthermore, Lesego is a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) activist in a personal capacity as well as a human rights defender. Lesego holds a national diploma in media studies and journalism and currently is studying towards a B.A. in communication science at the University of South Africa.

Hamunyari DumbaSisonkeProvincial Coordinator

Hamunyari is a single parent of two boys aged seventeen and fourteen. She is a migrant sex worker from Zimbabwe, and has worked with market photo and ACMS with sex workers in limpopo on projects volume 44 and equal air time.

Portia MasekoWRHICommunity Health Worker

Portia Maseko is a Community Health Worker currently working for Wits RHI providing direct support to the nurses, conducting pre and post counseling, pricking, adherence counseling, follow up of defaulters and tracking down sex workers demographics. She also worked as a peaditrician counselor at Baragwaneth hospital and also worked as a community healthy worker at research department under WRHI tracking patients who are on ART and doing follow up on defaulter tracing. She is currently studying Office administrator at diploma level with Damelin.

Nelago recently completed an MPhil in International Law from the University of Cape Town and has been working at ARASA since April 2014. ARASA is a regional partnership of over 80 CSOs working together to promote a human rights based response to HIV and TB in Southern and East Africa. In her role as regional advocacy officer she works with diverse partner organisations on issues related to creating legal enabling environments for key populations, which includes sex workers, as well as advocacy around access to treatment care and support.

Glynnis BenthamLobbying OfficerSWEAT

Glynnis Bentham is a lobbying officer for SWEAT. This role involves lobbying parliament and ward councillors. She also interacts with my community on a social services platforms, speaking about harrassment and and stigma within the community. The main aim in her job is to lobby for decriminalisation of sex work. Glynis is a mother, grandmother, sexworker and activist from yesteryear, still going strong.

Moses TofaOSF South AfricaProgramme Officer

Moses Tofa is a Programme Officer in the Justice and Equality and the Socio Economic Rights Programmes. Moses has previously worked as a Lead Researcher with the Mass Public Opinion Institute. He is also a Peace and Security Scholar with the African Leadership Centre and the Conflict, Security and Development Group. Moses holds a Bachelor of Science in Political Science and a Master of Science in International Relations from the University of Zimbabwe. He also holds a Master of Arts in International Peace and Security from King’s College, University of London. He has been admitted to a PhD in Conflict Transformation and Peace Studies at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal. He has published on regional politics widely.

Shepi MatiRhodes University

Shepi lives in Cape Town, South Africa, and works in the Journalism Department, Rhodes University, Grahamstown. He has devoted more than twenty years to the media and communications sector in South Africa, working for a broad range of organisations including public and community broadcasters and civil society organisations. His professional experience includes production (video, photo, radio, podcast, broadcast journalism), script writing, editing, communications research and teaching, training and development. Shepi has a special passion for community journalism and specifically radio as a medium to promote citizen agency and reflect a diversity of voices in community development.

]]>0srduncombehttp://artisticactivism.org/?p=55992015-04-07T20:04:41Z2015-03-14T22:53:00ZA monthly podcast about the most popular, highest grossing, mainstream culture. How we can use all that bad stuff for good? In each episode an an academic, an activist, and an artist from the Center for Artistic Activism will navigate through flotsam and jetsam looking for treasure, applying what we learn from pop culture to artistic activism. Subscribe!